Technical Field
The present invention relates to flash memory, and in particular to methods for dynamic partitioning and apparatuses using the same.
Description of the Related Art
Flash memory devices typically include NOR flash devices and NAND flash devices. NOR flash devices are random access—a host accessing a NOR flash device can provide the device any address on its address pins and immediately retrieve data stored in that address on the device's data pins. NAND flash devices, on the other hand, are not random access but serial access. It is not possible for NOR to access any random address in the way described above. Instead, the host has to write into the device a sequence of bytes which identifies both the type of command requested (e.g. read, write, erase, etc.) and the address to be used for that command. The address identifies a page (the smallest chunk of flash memory that can be written in a single operation) or a block (the smallest chunk of flash memory that can be erased in a single operation), and not a single byte or word. In reality, the NAND flash device always reads from the memory cells and writes to the memory cells complete pages. After a page of data is read from the array into a buffer inside the device, the host can access the data bytes or words one by one by serially clocking them out using a strobe signal. Flash memory devices may be equipped with different types of storage units and the quantities of logic partitions may vary with different types of storage units. Conventionally, it is required to prepare different firmware versions in correspondence with different types of storage units. Accordingly, what is needed are methods for dynamic partitioning and apparatuses that use these methods to overcome the drawbacks listed above.